When The Day Met The Night
by island-surfer
Summary: A songfic about the beginning of Hitsugaya and Karin's relationship. It's not as boring as it sounds. Rated T for safety. Please read and review!


**AN:** So, this is my first Bleach fanfic and my first songfic. Really, it's my first fanfic ever… But hopefully it won't be too bad. Hope you like it!

**Disclaimer:** Believe me, if I owned either the song or the characters, I wouldn't be posting this fic here. But just to be safe, I don't own Bleach or the song.

_When the moon fell in love with the sun  
All was golden in the sky  
All was golden when the day met the night_

Karin kicked the ball at the goal, frustrated. She had spent the afternoon at the soccer field practicing as she always did. It helped her relieve the stress of school, her crazy family, and the Hollow-induced headaches. It also helped to get her thoughts away from a certain white-haired shinigami captain. But it never lasted for long. The thoughts kept coming back.

Seeing that it was almost sunset, Karin began to get even more frustrated than she was before. _Where is he?_ she thought, her expression giving away the impatience she felt. Hitsugaya had promised to meet her at the field after school to practice. Retrieving the ball, the raven-haired girl grinned as she thought of how his shot still hadn't improved after all these years. At sixteen, she was still had better aim than the much-older captain, even with the strenuous practices she put him through.

Frustrated that she was thinking about him _again_, she kicked the soccer ball at the goal. This time the kick was powerful enough to knock down the practice goal.

"Careful, Kurosaki. Someone might think you're upset," she heard from somewhere behind her.

She turned to find Hitsugaya Toushirou standing at the other end of the field. "Nice of you to show up," she called back. She couldn't help smiling despite being annoyed with the shinigami. _He _did_ remember_, she thought. That sentiment broke through all the stress that had built up within her that day. Though she would never admit it that was the first clue she had of when she began to love him.

He walked over to her with his hands in his pockets in that lazy way that amused her and she noticed the sun going down behind him.

_Sunset_, she mused. _Just like when we met._

_When the sun found the moon  
She was drinking tea in a garden  
Under the green umbrella trees  
In the middle of summer_

Hitsugaya Toushirou walked to the soccer field after school had ended for the day and immediately thought the world was coming to an end. Kurosaki Karin was nowhere in sight.

Without hesitating, he ran straight to her house. In the time he had known Karin, she had only been absent from the soccer field once when she twisted her ankle. The memory of Karin screaming at her father for being so careless and leaving things on the floor of the clinic brought a smile to his face. Then he thought of what could have happened to her and he sped up and his smile fell while he cursed his gigai for its lack of movement.

When Hitsugaya came to the Kurosaki clinic, he found something he had not been expecting. Karin was wrapped in a blanket and sitting on a lawn chair in the front yard. She had a mug in her hand and she was shivering, if he was judging the shaking of the mug correctly, even though it was summertime. He sighed and walked over to her, but she hadn't noticed him yet. "You know, orange juice might work better than tea to get rid of a cold."

"It's not tea!" Karin replied gruffly. She turned her head up to him and sighed, a slight smile pulling at the edge of her lips. "Toushirou… I thought you were –"

"Ichigo," he finished. She nodded. "I figured." Hitsugaya looked down at Karin noticing, not for the first time, that she looked rather beautiful when she was vulnerable. _Not that she ever really looks beautiful_, he scolded himself silently. He liked her much better when she was well enough to kick his ass. It reminded him that he wasn't perfect. Every captain needed that kick to the ego.

Hitsugaya was about to offer to get her something like a refill of her drink when Ichigo stormed into the yard. Karin's brother stopped when he saw her sitting in the chair, but his eyes focused on the drink. "Tea, Karin? Since when do you drink tea?"

"It's not tea, dammit!"

_When the moon found the sun  
He looked like he was barely hanging on  
But her eyes saved his life  
In the middle of summer_

Karin held her head during her latest Hollow-induced headache. She could always tell when it wasn't a normal headache because it happened without anything colliding with her head beforehand.

After about twenty minutes, the pain went away suddenly. Normally, it went in stages while one of the shinigami was purifying the Hollow. It only happened that suddenly when Hitsugaya was dispatching the beast. But those headaches lasted about five minutes, not twenty.

"Something's wrong," she mumbled. As her own words registered in her mind, she was already getting her shoes on and running through the door toward where she had sensed the Hollow.

She rounded a corner to a fairly wide alleyway and saw a mound of black and white. She didn't see it moving. "Oh, no," she breathed. Karin ran over and found that it was the tenth squad captain.

Hitsugaya had a long slash across his side and his face was cut up. His eyes were half closed and his mouth was open.

"No… don't die. You can't die, Toushirou," she muttered as she turned him so he lay flat on his back. She was relieved when she saw his eyes open. She sighed and smiled one of her rare smiles. She seemed to only do it around him.

"I didn't know you cared, Karin," he said quietly, attempting humor he took her hand and gave it a small squeeze.

"Of course," she said with a chuckle, trying to hide her overwhelming relief. "Who else do I have to chase around town when they don't show up to practice?"

_  
In the middle of summer  
All was golden in the sky  
All was golden when the day met the night  
Summer, all was golden in the sky  
All was golden when the day met the night  
Summer, all was golden when the day met the night_

Karin had been standing in that same spot that day when she'd met him. She had that same expression of curiosity on her face. He'd never tell her why he really came to that spot every day at the same time. He'd let her believe that it was because of the sunset.

The white-haired captain vowed he would never tell her it was because he had a clear view of the soccer field.

He'd never tell her he perched himself there long before sunset.

He'd never admit that he looked forward to her coming and demanding why he'd missed practice again.

He looked over his shoulder to gauge Karin's mood. She was less mad than normal since he'd made an appearance earlier before running off to chase a Hollow. He could have sworn the raven-haired girl looked concerned when she noticed his bandaged arm.

It had been a different feeling in the air than the first time they'd stood like this, but the golden light had shone in her hair in the same exact way.

_So he said, "Would it be all right  
If we just sat and talked for a little while  
If in exchange for your time, I give you this smile?"_

Ichigo watched his sister run out the door. Again. It was the same time as every other day for the last two weeks. _Where is she going?_ he thought. But he really didn't need to ask. He knew she was spending time with Hitsugaya again. It seemed everyone could see the connection the captain and his sister had except for the two of them. It reminded Ichigo of his own relationship with another raven-haired girl.

He sighed as Rukia came in the room. "I'm not surprised at all," she said, seeing his expression and guessing what it was about. "You had to know this was coming."

"Of course I did," he said to his girlfriend. "I just wish I didn't have another captain that I wanted to beat the shit out of. And definitely not for this reason."

"But you won't."

"As long as I don't catch him touchin' her I won't. Besides, wasn't he supposed to go back to Soul Society a couple months ago?"

_So she said, "That's okay  
As long as you can make a promise not to break my little heart  
Or leave me all alone in the summer."_

Karin walked into the room acting like no one else was there. It was the same as always, ignoring everyone that she didn't feel like talking to at that moment. But, as the white-haired exchange student watched from the corner of the room, he noticed something was different. She was different.

After all these years, she was starting to wear clothing that suited her instead of those unseemly athletic shorts that she loved so much. Orihime and Rukia must have cornered her, he thought. Or Matsumoto… He shuddered to think of what his vice-captain could have said or done to the girl.

"I didn't know soccer uniforms included skirts now," Hitsugaya said as he came up behind her. Karin tried to hide her blush by turning her face away, but he saw it creeping up her neck.

"It's not like I wanted to wear this," she said. "Rangiku forced me into it. I blame you though. If you'd stayed like you promised, this wouldn't have happened."

"I went to get another ball and when I came back you were gone," he said in self-defense.

"Well, just don't leave again. Unless you want me dressed like this everyday," she said, turning around so he got the full effect. He had to try very hard not to have his mouth hang open as he tried to come up with a reply. But he stopped when her words registered. Was she flirting with him?

"I promise I won't leave you to the mercy of Matsumoto again," he finally said when his brain started functioning again.

_Well, he was just hanging around  
Then he fell in love  
And he didn't know how  
But he couldn't get out  
Just hanging around  
Then he fell in love_

While Renji, Matsumoto, Ikkaku, and Yumichika all went back and forth between Soul Society and Karakura Town, the young captain stayed in one place. Hitsugaya Toushirou hadn't been in Soul Society for longer than a few days in over two years. It took him until he saw Karin being pursued by a few guys in her class to realize why he stayed.

Hitsugaya needed to protect Karin. Whether or not she would like the idea, he felt he needed to.

As he watched her standing around with the rivals of her affections, he knew he didn't want her to be with anyone else but him.

He wanted her by his side.

"If you would just tell her how you feel, you may not have this problem, Hitsugaya-taichou," Matsumoto said from beside him. He sighed and turned away from the smiling raven-haired girl and the boys around her.

"As long as she's happy, it's fine," he said. While he was walking away, the word for that sentiment popped into his head: love.

He was in love with Kurosaki Karin.

_In the middle of summer  
All was golden in the sky  
All was golden when the day met the night  
Summer, all was golden in the sky  
All was golden when the day met the night  
Summer_

Karin sat at the spot where she'd first met Hitsugaya. Since she had come to the realization that she loved him, she came back to that spot whenever he went back to Soul Society. It reminded her of all the times they'd spent together. It had gotten to the point that Yuzu packed a meal for her twin, knowing Karin wouldn't make it home for dinner.

After the sun was down past the horizon, she sighed and turned to head home, but she stopped when she saw the object of her thoughts. She wasn't sure what to do, convinced that it could just be a figment of her imagination.

"That's the only greeting I get? A blank stare?" Hitsugaya said, raising an eyebrow.

Smiling, Karin answered, "No, I just didn't think it was really you. You're back early."

He shrugged. "I'd rather be here where I can actually do something. Besides, why would I want to stay there when I know you're just dying to kick my ass at soccer tomorrow." She smiled knowing that she not only planned to drill him horribly in soccer tomorrow, but that the next day looked much more promising because of it.

_When the moon fell in love with the sun,  
All was golden in the sky,  
All was golden when the day met the night_

Hitsugaya stormed up to Karin as she walked back from a battle with a Hollow. "What do you think you were doing?" he yelled at her.

"Fighting a Hollow," she answered, looking confused. "It's not like I haven't fought them before."

"You shouldn't be doing things like this. It's not a game, Karin. What if you got hurt?" Hitsugaya cursed himself for the underlying meaning of that comment. He cursed himself even more when she caught that meaning.

"You never cared before," Karin answered, sounding incredulous. Before he knew what he was doing, he'd pulled her into his arms and placed his lips over hers.

Karin quickly responded, her hands sliding up his chest to rest on his neck. The human girl matched the enthusiasm that the shinigami captain put in the action before they both broke the kiss, breathing heavier than before.

"I should fight Hollows more often if this is what happens," she said. She rested her head on his shoulder, smiling. "I love you, Toushirou." She said it softly enough that she didn't think he heard her until he placed a kiss on the top of her head.

"I love you too, Karin. Even if you do put yourself unnecessarily into harm's way."

Karin just rolled her eyes and punched his arm lightly. She knew he loved her so she could deal with the jokes he threw at her. She would deal with anything if she could stay with him.

_Summer, the middle of summer  
The middle of summer  
The middle of summer  
The middle of._

* * *

**AN:** There ya go. My first fanfic. By the way, if you didn't know, the song I used is "When The Day Met The Night" by Panic at the Disco. I love their new album…. Anyway, please review, even if you hated it. I can deal with flames. Thanks for reading!


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